‘Seoul wants better ties’: why Yoon isn’t upset over Japan’s demolished monument for wartime labourers

Last week, the authorities in Japan’s Gunma prefecture started demolishing the memorial at a public park in Takasaki city, despite opposition from local groups demanding the monument be preserved. The work is scheduled to be completed on Sunday.

Built in 2004, the memorial took the form of a stone wall with a plaque bearing the message “Remembrance, Reflection and Friendship” in Korean, Japanese and English, and a four-metre-tall gold pillar set into the concrete base. Visitors often left anti-war messages at the site, along with origami cranes that are a symbol of peace.

A citizens’ group obtained the permission of the prefectural government to erect the monument, but it quickly attracted criticism from conservatives on the grounds that it was “anti-Japanese”. A rival group claimed the memorial was becoming the focus of politically motivated events, which would contravene the qualified support of the prefecture.

In 2014, the prefectural government concluded that statements made at commemorative events in previous years amounted to political remarks and violated the original conditions set for the memorial. Among the controversial statements were claims that Koreans were “forcibly taken away” to work for Japanese companies.

When the prefecture declined to extend the permit for the monument after 10 years, the citizens’ group that erected and managed the site responded by suing the local authority, the Asahi newspaper reported.

The citizens’ group was in April last year ordered to remove the monument, although it ignored the order.

At a press conference on January 25, Gunma Governor Ichita Yamamoto said the citizens’ group had “repeatedly violated the conditions” set for the monument, turning it into a “political controversy”.

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